NEXT week, world leaders will gather in New York for the 10th anniversary of the UN millennium development goals.

The UN climate conference in Copenhagen ended today having approved a deal described by world leaders as a “first step” to tackling global warming.

Developing countries today agreed to resume climate change negotiations in Copenhagen after a half-day suspension.

Environmental campaigners slammed Europe’s governments tonight after latest talks to settle funding levels for climate change broke down without agreement.

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen will be under pressure to nominate the next Irish Commissioner over the next 10 days.

FORMER President of Ireland Mary Robinson has hit back at pro-Israeli critics of her selection as recipient of a US Presidential Medal of Freedom.

International pressure was mounting on Israel and the Palestinians today, but the violence showed no sign of abating as the death toll from the bombing blitz rose towards the 300 mark.

The UK expressed “deep concern” today after Israeli airstrikes killed more than 150 people in the Gaza Strip.

The world’s top producers of greenhouse gases pledged to battle climate change today, but failed to agree on targets for reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the G8 nations must reach agreement among themselves on climate change measures and avoid taking the approach that “I will do nothing unless you do it first,” which he called a “vicious circle".

Victims of climate change appealed today for a vast increase in international aid to protect and compensate them for rising seas, crop-killing drought and other likely impacts of global warming.

The G8 leaders pledged today to lift Africa out of poverty and proposed a $60bn plan to fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria.

Robert Zoellick, a nimble negotiator who has criss-crossed the globe as President George Bush’s trade chief and as the number two US diplomat, is the White House’s choice for the next World Bank presidency.

G8 leader Germany is pledging to make Africa a central point of next month’s summit and is calling for more aid, further debt relief and improved financial oversight.

EU foreign ministers in plan to signal strong support today for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ bid to form a national unity government.

EUROPE must accept its role in the five years of failed negotiations at the WTO, according to Oxfam International.

AS top sportswear brands prepare to showcase their wares at this year’s FIFA World Cup in Germany, across Asia, workers who attempt to unionise are being sacked and threatened with violence, Oxfam International said yesterday.

ONLY one-fifth of the 1.8 million people made homeless by last December’s tsunami will be in permanent homes by the end of this year, British-based aid group Oxfam International said yesterday.

OXFAM has been accused by an Irish member of the European Parliament of joining the simplistic “Blair Camp” on the future of agricultural policy and support within the European Union.

RESCUE teams and aid pledges poured into Pakistan from around the world yesterday.

SUDAN ordered the expulsion of the directors of two humanitarian organisations yesterday for their statements on the Darfur crisis.

Sudan ordered the expulsion of the directors of two British humanitarian organisations today for their statements on the Darfur crisis.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan today called on the Security Council to issue “the strongest warning” to the forces fighting in Sudan to bring an end to the civil wars there.

SECURITY in Sudan’s Darfur region is a “farce” with the government engaged in ethnic cleansing and rebel groups looting and abducting civilians in violation of an April cease-fire, a rights group said yesterday.

British-based charity Oxfam today denied charges that a campaign backed by its Belgian affiliate to boycott Israeli goods produced in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights was anti-Semitic.

US jets targeted the heart of Afghanistan’s capital today, pounding a district that housed a Taliban tank unit and other military installations.

International aid groups today appealed for a pause in the US-led bombing in Afghanistan to allow urgent food deliveries for the winter.